Dillon's Ditties

Reflecting on 2006

2006-12-30T07:02:00.000-08:00

I hope everybody survived Christmas. We had a very quiet day. My parents came over Christmas Eve and had dinner afterwards we exchanged gifts. Santa was good to me this year. I got a great food processor. The joke between Dwight and I was you never give gifts with electrical cords. Well, the longer we are married that rule has been thrown out. I love to cook and it sure will come in handy. On Christmas day we had our special friends Randy & Betty over for a nice quite dinner.

As I reflect back on 2006 many things come to mind. First of all I am another year older and hopefully a little wiser. I have added another notch to my belt being married (26 years and counting). It has always been a joke between Dwight and I (30 years and your out) just like General Motors. Well, who knows what is going to happen! Our son turned 25 boy is that a shock! But he is doing just great. He has a fantastic girl in his life (Nicole) who I hope to meet someday. Dwight and my Mom have met her and they think she is the greatest. As a parent that is all we have ever wanted for our son to be happy.

We have done much traveling this year. Dwight was home (Michigan) over Thanksgiving to see his Dad and siblings (all 8 of them). He spent time with Joe and that was great. He got to do a little geocaching while he was there. So his trip was a success. In February I went on a 5 day Caribbean cruise with my parents which was awesome. In fact we are doing the same cruise again in Feb. 2007. In July we had the cruise of a lifetime. We met up with my cousin and family from (North Carolina) friends of theirs (North Carolina) and family and friends (Florida)my Dad and Mom (Texas) and as a added surprise we had our son from (Michigan) meet us. To say the least my parents didn't know about Joe and what a shock at the airport. We than spent the night in Seattle to board the ship in the morning and head for Alaska. For those of you who know me well I hate COLD and anything associated with it. But guess what I am ready to go back. I now know what they mean when they say "God's Country" it really is.

Dwight is still working for Fun N Sun as maintenance (cuts grass for a living). I started doing volunteer work for the local hospital twice a week and love it. I work in the accounting department and file invoices and make folders. The greatest part of this job is the personal satisfaction and how much the staff really appreciates you. When they say "thank you" they really mean it.

We still do geocaching whenever we can. It is our hobby that we love the most. It must be the adventure of the hunt and find. We have over 425+ finds under our belt and our next goal is to hit the 500 mark. We have met many great fellow cachers through various outings that have been planned. It is great finally putting faces with names. In fact New Years Day we are caching.

I really don't have much more to say. We still have our "best friend" Sierra and she is doing just great. She will be 6 this coming year but still acts like a puppy. Sierra is our Brittany Spaniel for those of you who don't know. She is the light of our life. Never a dull moment around this house with her. She wakes up happy and playful and goes to bed happy and playful. Dwight and I wouldn't want her any other way.

Dwight and I want to wish each and everyone of you a wonderful New Year. Hope we cross paths with you sometime in 2007. If we don't get a chance just remember you are in our hearts and minds!

Love & Kisses
Dwight & Val

What's Up With The Dillon's!

2006-11-25T06:13:00.000-08:00

I hope this entry finds everyone well. We survived the first major holiday "Thanksgiving". Dwight was back home in Michigan visiting our son (Joseph who lives in Davison) and his Dad. I had dinner with my best friends Randy & Betty. Not a lot of things have been happening in our lives. I had some minor surgery here a week ago (nodule in my arm pit) and it came back A-Ok! I am now volunteering at the local hospital twice a week in the accounting department. It is my stress release from life. I truly enjoy giving to the community. At the end of my shift I feel so rewarded. Dwight is still working at Fun N Sun but has been looking for employment elsewhere. He feel that he needs a change! We are going to start getting ready for Christmas. The lights will be hung, the tree decorated and the cards sent out. Our son will not be with us this Christmas but is coming down in March. He has a very wonderful girlfriend and he will be spending the holidays with Nicole and her family.
We have been doing a lot of geocaching on the week-ends. As of this date we have found over 415 caches and have placed 29 of our own personal caches. We pretty much have the McAllen, Mission & Edinburgh are done. Dwight has been doing some caching in Michigan but cold weather and snow flakes has hindered him somewhat.
We are looking forward to January as "Winter Baseball" is coming. We have truly enjoyed baseball down here so much that we have bought season tickets for the summer. The winter league will play 2 games everyday with 4 teams. It will run from January until late February with 11:oo and 3:30 games and 7 innings. It should be fun! Hot dogs and beer!
The park is really getting full. The corporation offered a $99.00 rental for the month of November and the people flocked to take advantage of this special. So many new faces! It is nice to see many "old" face come back.
My parents are doing great. They just got back from a 8 day "Southern Caribbean Cruise" that left out of Puerto Rico. They had a great time. I was really jealous and wanted to go. They went to ports that I have always wanted to go to. Someday Dwight and I will get there.
Well, I guess I have rambled on enough and hope that you enjoy the "little tidbits" of our lives. We send our love to each and everyone of you.

What We Have Been Up To?

2006-08-27T09:57:00.000-07:00

Well, a good friend of ours has been bugging me to update my BLOG so here I go. We have become quite "loyal fans" of baseball here in the valley. But to much sadness the season is over and they (White Wings) did not make it into the playoffs. Better luck next year. We have been geocaching our "little hearts" out. We have completly found all of the McAllen, Edinburg & Misson area. So over the Labor Day week-end we are heading north to Kingsville and Corpus Christi to try and bag 67 caches.
I thought I would give you some "boring" stats on our personal geocache history. For those of you who are not cachers you probably will think this is Greek but to our avid cachers this should be pretty impressive.
We have found a total of 330 caches so far. We now own 25 personal caches in the Harlingen/San Benito area. And have a total of 7 Travel Bugs out. The furthest bug has logged over 3800 miles. We have been doing this on a Sunday only. So between baseball and caching our Summer has been pretty full. We can't believe that Summer is almost gone and Fall will be here shortly bringing the migatory trek of "Winter Texans" back to the valley.
So in a nut shell this is our life. Dwight goes to work everyday and I do the wifely duties, cooking, cleaning, shopping and yes laundry. So until the next time we wish you fond wishes and "hugs & kisses"

Where We Have traveled Over The Last 26 Years

2006-07-16T15:56:00.000-07:00

States We Have Visited

Countries We Have Visited

I was thinking of how many wonderful places we have visited and thought it would be neat to share this with everyone. We have seen many places while we were full timing in our 5th wheel and cruises that we have taken. Enjoy!

North To Alaska

2006-07-11T11:02:00.000-07:00

Visions Of The Seas

On June 30, 2006 we started our 7 day adventure with family and friends from Florida, Michigan, North Carolina and Texas on the Visions Of The Seas. We flew our son (Joseph) into Seattle to join us on this cruise and surprised his Grandparents. This was an Alaskan cruise with ports of call Seattle, Juneau, Skagway, Icy Strait Point and Inside Passage (cruising). When I was planning this trip with my cousin I was worried about being cold but was I ever surprised. The weather was sunny and in the 70's. The Alaskan residents were so happy about the weather because they had just had 70 straight days of rain.

Our first port of call was Juneau. This was our busiest as we had many things to do. We went geocaching, visited a Glacier, rode a tramway and went down the river on a floatboat. The views were spectular in every bend of the road or river. We did not see any bears (a little bit of a disappointment) but it was explained to us that they were just coming out of hibernation. The bears were also confused with the weather because Spring was just coming. We took a shuttle courtesy of the ship to Mendallhall Glacier and spent a little over an hour. We came to the conclusion that we could of spent all day there. We did a little geocaching and hiking with our son and niece. Our next stop was to do the tramway which took us to the top of Mt. Roberts. What a view! After gathering the troops we all went our separate ways to various excursions. A group of us went floatboating down the river which included class 2 and 3 rapids. It was quite a thrill for those who had never did white water rafting. My concern was falling into the cold icy water. But we all came back dry. We all dragged ourselves to the ship from exhaustion but it was well worth it.

Our next stop is Skagway which a quaint fishing village. Dwight and I was up at 6am geocaching. What a great experience. This village shows remnants of the "gold panning era". We met up with the group after breakfast and actually went gold panning. A few of us was lucky enough to nab some gold (it was planted). But the adventure was fun. Dwight was greeted by a "Madame". After shopping and sightseeing off to the ship we went. On our way to the next port The Captain of the ship spotted the Sea Lions (about 500) below and actually stopped the ship for passengers to take pictures.

Icy Strait Point was our next destination. We were rather disappointed because we did not see any bears or whales. Because of the weather being so mixed up the animals were basically confused. The whales were just starting their migration. The Bald Eagles were plentiful. A group of us rented ATV Mules and trekked off into the mountains. We did see fresh bear scat (poop) but our leader said that the ATV's probably scared it off. The views were unbelievable around every corner. This village was famous at one time with a operational cannery for salmon, halibut and cod. We had a lunch of fresh halibut and boy was it great. We were also greeted by the local Indians and given a cedar chip to burn in a fire. The forklore behind this was that we were releasing our spirits. It was a great day.

The next day we cruised through the Inside Passage. This was a nice relaxing day. We were on our way back to Seattle which ended this cruise. After disembarking from the ship we spent the day doing the sightseeing thing. We visited Pike's Market (famous for fish throwing) it was pretty cool. We visited the Space Needle but didn't go up because of time. We walked along the waterfront and enjoyed the smells of Washington. We said our goodbyes to everyone and flew off to our destinations.

Three Strikes and Your Out!

2006-05-23T04:50:00.000-07:00

Can you believe we have baseball here Yes, The Rio Grande Valley White Wings have come back to the valley. This is 1 of 6 teams in the ULB league. For $5.00 you can get reserved grandstand seats. The beers are cold and the hot dogs are great. Although the Wings have not been doing very well (2-4) it is a fun night out. There is a group (see photo) from Fun N Sun that are season ticket holders and make quite a noise.

We even have local celebrities come to the game. Dwight thinks our local news lady (Martha Benevides) is a doll and he got to actually meet her in person last night. This made him a very happy man. She sang the Star Spangled Banner for the crowd to start the game off.

Dwight Dillon & Martha Benevides

And yes what would a sports team be without a mascot! We have our very own White Wing. He loves to work the crowd and puts on quite a show during the game.

So all and all baseball here in The Valley is alive and well. It at least gets us out of the house in the evening instead of becoming "couch potatoes".

A Little This N That

2006-05-09T14:08:00.000-07:00

Well, not a whole lot have been going on here at Fun N Sun. The weather has slowly begun to climb into the upper 90's to lower 100's by the middle of this week. I have finally broke down and turned the air conditioner on. We have been going geocaching on Saturdays and resting on Sunday. I guess this is where the phrase "Dog Days Of Summer" has come from. I am not planning on going to Michigan this summer to see our son Joe but instead are planning a Alaskan Cruise at the end of June with my parents, cousin and family from South Carolina their friends and family members from Miami. It should be a lot of fun being all together. I have started a BLOG for the Fun N Sun Walkers here in the park and that has kept me busy. I also am trying to get proficient in a GPS program that we have for geocaching. Thanks to good friends Chuck & DeeDee they have thrown me into the mix of modern technology. Boy my head is spinning but I am grasping a few things. I went back to attempt to clog. I was actually able to clog for about 1 1/2 hours today. I probably won't walk tomorrow. I also have been back walking and riding my bike around the park. I do believe the exercise has helped me strengthen my knee. Dwight is doing just great. He has lost about 50 pounds and is feeling fantastic. He is still working here at the park cutting grass everyday. He plans on retiring in about 8 years and we will start traveling again. My parents are doing just wonderful. My Dad walks 5 days a week 2 miles a day with our dog and my Mom goes to curves 3 days a week. For 80 and 81 they both look great. Well, I really don't want to ramble on so I hope you enjoy this BLOG. Take care and we send our love!

What We Have Been Up Too!!!

2006-04-24T12:27:00.000-07:00

Our Geocaching Day

Dwight and I started back doing our hobby of Geocaching. You are probably asking what is Geocache? Well, a short version of it is a "internet treasure hunt". We load coordinates into our GPS and off we go looking for caches. If you want to know more about this hobby go to WWW.Geocaching.Com. It is a very interesting and fun hobby and the best part you meet a lot of neat people along the way. To the side is a picture of Dwight with a cache he found yesterday. We found 11/15 not a bad day for geocaching. We also did something different this time we rode our bikes. We went over 15+ miles yesterday. But as Dwight would say "it's all part of the experience honey!".

Our Children

As most of you know we have a son Joseph age 25 would still lives in Michigan. He is not married. He works for a small company in Davison where he lives and is currently going to school for his certificate in Tool & Die. He is still a very avid bowler with a 225+ average. Now that the weather is starting to warm up in Michigan the golf clubs are coming out and the bowling ball is going in storage. This is a picture of Joe when he visited us this past Christmas.

Our other child has 4 paws. Sierra is a 5 year old Brittany Spaniel who is spoiled rotten. She has been our constant companion since the age of 8 weeks. She has traveled all over the United States with us in our 5th wheel. She is the love of our life and we enjoy her companionship very much. This picture was taken on a lazy day she was having.

Mom's 80th Birthday Party

2006-04-20T06:53:00.000-07:00

Look at this dessert! This is "Death by Chocolate" Cake and yes it will kill your diet. But what a way to go!!!!

Boy where has the time gone! I can remember when my Mom turned 50 and I thought her life was over and yesterday she turned 80. We had a birthday celebration with our friends Randy & Betty Tope and their family also my Dad and Dwight. We went down to South Padre Island and ate at Louie's Backyard. We topped the wonderful dinner off with "Death by Chocolate" Cake to a thunderous round of "Happy Birthday" sung to my Mom by everyone present as well as the great waitstaff.

My First Blog

2006-04-17T09:21:00.000-07:00

Well, here I go zooming into the world of Blogs. We have friends who started one and I enjoy them so I said to myself "let me give it a try" and here I go. We had a wonderful and quite Easter here in Texas. The weather was warm and sunny with a gentle breeze. We all filled our bellies with ham and the trimmings.